Archive for October, 2007

ON THE bus home, I met again?after several months one of my closest college friends. Aside from beer, there is one more thing that binds us together.

Struggling with the bags and file folders I got from the office where I previously worked, I hurried got on the bus at about half past two this afternoon to catch up with my appointment with the radiologist at four. Good thing, the guards did not open my bags again. I looked for a vacant seat and noticed a familiar face. Only, this face was more hairy and looked like that of a man?five years older than me. “Ariel,” he called me “it’s you!”

It was Ronnel. A fellow at the T’nalak Youth Group. He was the Assistant?to Aethen?before qualifying to the MASICAP program. I was suprised to see him darker and older. He got it from his field work, he said.

He was sitting near the window and the sun was strong. I offered my jacket. I forgot that he also has the same jacket I?got from a congress I attended one year before he did. And that spurred the drama of this all, the reason why I am posting this.

The AYLC jacket is a big thing for us who were able to part of the congress. No, it does not make us proud. It reminds us that we have a responsibility on our shoulders, the starfish we choose to throw back to the ocean. We talked about our respective works now–how we are making a difference in our own ways.

We talked about young people who are convinced to stay in the country despite the lure of the green bucks. He told?me how they work for countryside development. He was teary-eyed about it.

When it was time to go, I looked at the? logo on my jacket and told him, “Keep the fire burning.”

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